RSF Social Finance Makes a Loan to Pine Hill Waldorf School
(3BL Media) San Francisco, CA - October 3, 2012 - RSF Social Finance is pleased to announce a new loan to Pine Hill Waldorf School. Pine Hill is one of RSF’s oldest borrowers. RSF made one of its first loans to Pine Hill Waldorf School in 1984, helping the influential elementary school recover from a fire that destroyed its schoolhouse. The two have remained partners in a variety of ways, and RSF is now providing funding for a model early childhood education center that extends the school’s impact into the community and beyond.
Pine Hill is a Nursery through 8th grade, independent Waldorf School in Wilton, New Hampshire – approximately 1.5 hours from Boston. The school is located directly across the street from High Mowing School, a Waldorf boarding school for high school students. Wilton is also the home of The Center for Anthroposophy, RSF borrower Four Winds Community, and the Temple Wilton Community Biodynamic Farm.
Pine Hill started in 1972 with nineteen students. Today the school has 158 students and its 47 acre campus includes a main building with a 337 seat auditorium, a manual arts building, and an early childhood building. RSF’s loan will support the construction of the Children’s Village, an early childhood education center.
“We are really excited about the Children’s Village,” says Sherry Jennings, a long-time Pine Hill teacher. “This will be a space where we can protect and honor the needs of the very young child. We’re also creating a publicly accessible parent education program, which will contribute to the whole community.”
“Without RSF we would not have been able to develop as full a master plan and model,” says Arthur Auer, director of the Waldorf teacher training program at Pine Hill. “The impact is not just local: the Children’s Village speaks to other Waldorf schools about the value of establishing their own early childhood education centers.”
“So many of RSF’s early cutting edge loan programs were developed in conjunction with the first Pine Hill Waldorf School loan and it’s exciting to be able to help Pine Hill again, 28 years later,” says RSF’s Chair of the Board, Mark A. Finser.
About RSF Social Finance
Located in San Francisco, CA, RSF Social Finance (RSF) is a financial services organization dedicated to transforming the way the world works with money. Since 1984, the organization has made over $275 million in loans and $100 million in grants to non-profit and for-profit social enterprises working in the areas of Food & Agriculture, Education & the Arts, and Ecological Stewardship.
RSF's lending capital comes primarily from 1,200 individuals who have invested $1,000 or more in the organization's Social Investment Fund. Investors earn a competitive return on their money comparable to a certificate of deposit while their funds are deployed to leading social enterprises. To learn more, visit www.rsfsocialfinance.org.
About Pine Hill
Pine Hill Waldorf School is an independent private primary school offering a curriculum based on the educational methods of Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Waldorf education. Waldorf education is the fastest- growing independent educational movement in the world, and Pine Hill Waldorf School is one of the oldest and most established of the several hundred Waldorf schools in North America. Pine Hill is accredited by the Association of Independent Schools in New England (AISNE) and the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA.) The school offers need-based tuition assistance to many of its students. Inquiries and visitors are very welcome. For more information, please contact the school at 603-654-6003 or visit www.pinehill.org.
Contact
Ted Levinson, Lending Director
ted.levinson@rsfsocialfinance.org
415.561.6179
Jillian McCoy, Senior Associate, Communications
jillian.mccoy@rsfsocialfinance.org
415.561.6156
